Song Sanniang's Journey to Wealth

Chapter 186: New Year's Eve

By the time Niu Lao Da had gotten used to playing with the dogs in the yard, Second Sister Song and Third Sister Niu had finished chatting.

Song Laoer and Niu Laosan also finished their cup of tea, so the two families said goodbye to Song Laoer's family and returned home.

Next, the village chief, clan chief, and the fourth uncle's family all sent their younger generations to give New Year gifts to Song Laoer's family. Song Zhongxiao and Song Liyi also sent New Year gifts.

Feeling that no one else would come, Song Lao Er and the others began to prepare dinner for tonight.

I'm going to make a chicken stew tonight. I haven't finished the seafood, fish maw and sea cucumber that Miss He sent me before. I'll make soup with the old hen later.

Song Laoer prepared the old hen, put it in the soup pot, and added water.

Then pour in fish glue, sea cucumber, scallops, blanched ribs, and some soup ingredients, such as red dates and longans, and start to cook the soup over high heat.

Then he began to process other ingredients, slicing various meats, while Song Sanniang and the others cleaned various vegetables, and cut tofu, bean curd sticks and other ingredients and soaked them in water.

Although Uncle Zhang's lotus roots were sold out in the village, Song Laoer bought some in the market. In this kind of weather, it is very comfortable to have a hot pot and eat a mouthful of steaming lotus roots.

Peel the lotus root, slice it and arrange it. The snow-white lotus root slices looked tempting. Song Sanniang couldn't help but eat a piece. It was a little cold, but crisp, sweet and delicious.

After a busy day, the kitchen was filled with a variety of processed ingredients, including plates of sliced ​​beef, mutton, and fish.

There are also freshly cleaned prawns, plump and round white fish balls, and finger-thick squid tentacles.

There was also a large rooster that had been deboned and meated. The chicken was also cut into thin slices, and the remaining skeleton and chicken feet were thrown into the pot with the old hen.

Juicy watercress and lotus root slices, lush green lettuce, plump white radish, tender white tofu and yuba,

There are also day lilies that are rarely grown by people in Songjia Village, white yam pieces, and taro slices of uniform thickness.

Song Lao Er was making the final preparations under the direction of Song Ersao, preparing the dipping sauce. The dipping sauce usually uses minced garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce, chopped green onions, and chopped coriander, which is very delicious.

However, everyone has different tastes, so Song Lao Er simply packs the minced garlic, green onion, and coriander separately, so that everyone can adjust the taste when needed.

When everything was ready, Qin Haodong's charcoal stove was also lit. This time, a large charcoal stove was used with a newly bought large pot on top.

The chicken soup in the kitchen exuded a rich aroma. Song Laoer lifted the lid and a strong aroma accompanied by hot steam hit his nose, then drifted around the kitchen.

He scooped out the chicken soup and the soup stock separately. The soup stock could be cooked again tomorrow and eaten. He carefully brought the chicken soup to the charcoal stove, poured it into the big pot, and let it boil in the big pot.

In the kitchen, Song Sanniang put the big pot of bath water on the boil. She would give each person a small bowl of chicken soup first. As the hot pot chicken soup cooks, the soup will become less and less, so she will need to add hot water, so be sure to prepare the hot water.

Qin Yuanyuan and Qin Haodong put a small bowl of chicken soup in everyone's bowl. After Song Laoer and the other two finished serving the chicken soup, they put the fish balls and squid into the pot to cook. As everyone knows, when making hot pot, the ones that are not easy to cook should be put in first.

After Song Sanniang came out of the kitchen and sat down, Song Laoer invited everyone to start eating, "Come, drink the chicken soup while it's hot."

Everyone lowered their heads and drank the chicken soup after hearing this. After it cooled down a bit, it was no longer so hot. As soon as the soup went into their mouths, the delicious and rich flavor filled their mouths. Everyone drank the soup in small sips.

Song Sanniang put some beef and fish fillets in a colander and cooked them for a short while before eating. She exposed the colander to the surface of the soup for everyone to pick up. Everyone started to pick up the fillets with their chopsticks.

Si Niang and Wu Niang no longer need adults to help them pick up food. They have learned table manners from Master Hu, and their behavior is completely different from before.

The beef is cooked to perfection and mixed with the dipping sauce. The fragrant and tender taste will linger on your cheeks and teeth. One or two bites is not enough.

I could only eat a bite of the fish fillet to satisfy my craving. The fish fillet had no fishy smell at all, only fresh and tender.

Everyone cooked their favorite dishes. Qin Haodong usually ate chicken, but he had never eaten chicken sliced ​​so thinly.

The chicken doesn't need to be cooked for a long time. When you take it out of the pot after a while, the tender chicken still has smooth chicken skin, which is simply irresistible.

In addition to beef, Song Sanniang also loves squid. The tentacles of squid are plump, elastic and crispy, which reminds Song Sanniang of tripe and yellow throat.

Unfortunately, when she bought them, they were all bought by the restaurant. But fortunately, they are now eating fish maw and chicken pot, which is light after all.

If you eat spicy hot pot without tripe and yellow throat, it really feels like a waste.

Although the weather was cold, everyone was sweating while eating the steaming hot pot.

Everyone ate heartily. They enjoyed the meat first, then started to eat Chinese yam, lotus root slices, radish, etc. The taro was easy to rot, so it had to be put last.

Although Chinese yam also has a soft texture, it will not spread everywhere in the pot when cooked. Song Sanniang likes to eat the crispy texture of Chinese yam before it is cooked soft.

Since Song Ersao became pregnant, she liked to eat light food. She felt a little greasy after eating some meat, so Song Laoer gave her some white radish, watercress, and tofu. She ate with relish.

Qin Yuanyuan likes to eat shrimps. In addition to eating them herself, she also peeled shrimps for Qin Haoxi, which made the four mothers envious. They looked at Song Sanniang, who sneered twice.

The two of them ate their own food obediently. Since they started school, they felt that their elder sister didn't spoil them as much as before. Alas, growing up is not so beautiful anymore.

This family reunion dinner was spent in an atmosphere of warmth and laughter.

Some places have the custom of staying up all night on New Year's Eve, but this is not the case here. However, the women in the family have to get up at the Yin hour (3 to 5 in the morning) to worship the gods and burn incense.

Some people will also burn firecrackers at this time to welcome the New Year and get rid of the old and welcome the new, so there will be one after another firecrackers on the night of New Year’s Eve, which is very lively and people generally can’t sleep well.

In previous years, it was Song Ersao who did this. Now that she was pregnant, Song Sanniang and Song Laoer took over this task.

Song Sanniang was very energetic now, so she planned to stay up all night. People here usually don't go out on the first day of the New Year, and the second day is the day when married women return to their parents' home.

So Song Sanniang called Qin Haodong and the others to go upstairs and play mahjong. Fortunately, she made mahjong, otherwise she would not know how to pass the long night.

In this place without cell phones, even reading storybooks made her scalp tingle, because they were all daydreamy stories written by bored scholars.

There are stories like a poor scholar who marries a daughter of an official and rises to prominence, or a poor scholar who meets a spirit and relies on the spirit to become rich. The male protagonists in these stories all have three wives and four concubines, and a large harem.

There were six people, including Song Sanniang's three sisters and Qin Haodong's three siblings. Some people didn't know the rules, so Song Sanniang explained the rules to everyone, and then they started drawing lots to decide which four people would play the first round.

Song Sanniang, who organized the group, was not picked. She could only watch Si Niang and Qin Haodong and Qin Haoxi fight in frustration. She gave everyone some pointers from time to time, after all, they were not familiar with each other yet.

After playing a few games, everyone got the hang of it and couldn't stop. Song Sanniang played two games and felt a little cold, so she brought a blanket to cover herself. Everyone followed her example and brought their own blankets.

Now that he had a quilt, he naturally had to have some snacks, so he went downstairs to get some fruit snacks to eat. After a while, he felt thirsty again, so Qin Haodong lit the charcoal stove and boiled some hot water.

Song Sanniang thought of fruit tea, so she fiddled with it for a while, and the fruit tea began to boil on the charcoal stove. However, there were not many kinds of fruits, so she just tried something new.